Seeing Red
by Katie237
Summary: AU 3x13 : What if, to make sure Cisco was going to open a portal for him, Grodd started threatening Barry's life and beating him down? Oneshot. Original idea by RedQ


**A/N: Shout-out to my good friend RedQ for letting me write your idea.**

 **She put it in my head while the episode first aired and told me I could write it if the episode turned out differently, which ended up happening. It took me the longest time to finally find the time and the inspiration to write it, but here it is! Enjoy!**

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Cisco smiled defiantly at Grodd: ''You can't kill me, you need me.''

The heavy gorilla slowly advanced his prisoners.

''I'm not going to hurt _you,_ don't worry. But, Flash is of no use to me anymore.''

Strongly grabbing the bars, he violently slid them 'til he was standing in front of an open door, blocking the way between Barry and freedom. Flash instinctively backed up a couple of steps, tightening his jaw, knowing how powerless he was right now, literally.

''You still need me.'' He tried, despite his inability right now to find any arguments to add to his pitch.

Grodd growled as an answer, quickly reaching for the speedsters' throat, raising him above the ground until Barry's feet weren't even touching the ground anymore, leaving the hero uselessly kicking the air. Barry's hands went to his throat as he was struggling to breathe.

''Grodd!'' Exclaimed Caitlin and Cisco at the same time. ''Stop!''

''Flash. Will. Die.'' Added the gorilla before slamming Barry hard against the back of the cell, letting the stunned man fall on the ground. The CSI was left gasping for air and barely catching himself on all four. ''Unless, you open a breach for me.'' Continued Grodd.

''Cis...c...o...don't.'' Said Barry between two short breaths.

Angrily growling, Grodd, King Grodd, turned around surprisingly fast for his size and charged at the speedster once more.

''Barry!'' Screamed Caitlin, witnessing her friend getting brutalized against as he was still recovering from his initial injuries from the earlier fight with Solovar.

Brutally grabbing Barry's right arm, Grodd started to twist it around, deaf to the pleading or Barry's scream of pain as his limb started bending at an unnatural angle.

''Stop!'' Pleased Cisco, pressing against the bars.

''Cisco!...Arrrggg...! DON'T!'' Repeated he speedster.

''Silence.'' Growled the telepathic gorilla before snapping the speedster's bone with a sickening cracking sound.

''We won't do it.'' Stated Cisco, clamping his fists and jaw.

''You have one hour.'' Added the telepathic gorilla, harshly throwing once again his victim against the bars separating his cell from Caitlin's. Making his way out, he left in his trail a heavy grunt of pain as Barry fell on the ground, completely still.

''Barry? Can you hear me?'' Anxiously asked Cisco, grabbing the bars, pressing his face between them.

''Allen?'' Worriedly asked Julian, also approaching as close as he could from the unmoving CSI.

The anguish was growing as the speedster still had to say a word, make a sound or even move a muscle. His eyes were closed, his whole body was limp and his back was leaning on the bars.

Kneeling, Caitlin reached out for their friend's throat, pressing her fingers on the skin.

''He's just out, but he's still alive.'' Confirmed Caitlin, letting out the breath she and everyone else had been holding, including Harry who crouched down next to the doctor.

''Must've hit his head.'' Concluded Harry, calmly.

''I have to yield, I have to give in to Grodd's demands. '' Said Cisco, walking back a couple of feet, both hands in his messed up hairs.

''Cisco.'' Growled Caitlin. ''Barry will never forgive us if we were to open a breach for Grodd and his army to come to our Earth.''

''He's not going to care about anything anymore if he dies.'' Nobody had anything to say against that. ''If we don't do something and right now, Barry is going to be nothing but a cold corpse. Soon.''

''Cold'' Whispered Caitlin to herself in sudden realization. ''That's it!''

''What?''

''That's it! That's how we get out of here!''

A particularly loud grunt of pain forced all their attention back to their wounded friend as he was already coming back to the world of the living, hissing and protectively wrapping his un-broken arm around his chest and ribs.

''What's….'pening.'' Asked Barry between two coughing fit, struggling to get in a complete sitting position, helped by Caitlin and Harry who didn't miss a beat in grabbing his shoulders 'til he was stable on his own.

''Try not to move around too much.'' Suggested Caitlin. ''You might have broken ribs.''

''What's the plan?'' He weakly rasped, repressing the pain.

''I have an idea, but I don't know how much you'll love it.'' Answered Caitlin.

 *****FLASHFLASHFLASH*****

''When you last threw him against the bars, he hit his head too hard and died instantly.'' Sobbed Caitlin, crunched on the ground. Harry's comforting hand was on her shoulder as they stared at Barry's inert, blue and cold body at the exact same spot he was when Grodd left.

The giant, telepathic gorilla glance moved from the inert speedster to his friends, before returning to Barry, landing his big hand on Barry's neck.

''Cold. Dead.'' Said his voice in everyone's dead. ''Didn't need him anymore. '' Without adding anything more, he forcibly grabbed the speedster's leg and started moving him out of the cell, straight to his pile of garbage. Once that task was done, he turned back to his prisoners.

''Now, open a portal. '' He aggressively growled at Cisco. ''Or I'll kill another one of your friends.''

''Leave me a moment to mourn.'' Requested Cisco, wiping his tears and earning another growl, but the gorilla ceded.

''One. Moment. '' He said, before moving out.

All eyes stared at their adversary as Grodd slowly made his way out of the room, passing right next the speedster, not even bothering to take a look at his deceased victim who hadn't moved an inch since getting thrown away.

''Barry, he's gone.'' Informed Cisco. ''You can wake up now.'' He added seeing that the cold, blue, speedster still wasn't moving, at all, after a few anxious moments.

''Come on, mate.'' Encouraged Julian, closely watching his friend as he slowly started to vibrate before drawing a sharp breath. ''Come on Barry, you can do it. ''

The speedster was visibly struggling to sit up, sharply inhaling when he unconsciously put weight on his broken arm, causing him to lose even more of the little colors still remaining of his too-pale face.

''I didn't freeze you too much, didn't I?'' Nervously asked Caitlin.

''No…I'm good.'' Answered Barry, visibly fighting the agony of his injuries, the ones on the surface and the ones that nobody could see. Caitlin just wanted to get back at the lab as fast as possible to check her friend out.

Badly limping to the locking mechanism, Barry pushed it with all his remaining strength, biting his lips so hard to suppress a scream that his friends could clearly see little drops of blood appearing on them. With one burst of energy, Barry managed to free all his friends. He would've fallen to the ground if it wasn't for Cisco and Julian running to support him.

''Let's get out of here.'' Said Caitlin, no time to wait for Grodd to come back and beat the crap out of someone else.

The next moment, Barry was running all the way to the forest, abruptly stopping when they were far enough, badly stumbling and crashing to the ground of the forest floor, taking half of his friends with him in the fall.

''Barry!'' Screamed Caitlin, barely able to stay on her feet, turning around and kneeling next to the hero. In an instant, she had the CSI turned on his back, before the rest of the group even had a chance to get back up. ''Barry, say something.''

He was completely out of it as his eyes were tightly closed, whimpering and shaking in pain, that last run he made while carrying everyone took him to the verge of his pain endurance.

''There's no time for this, we can't stay here.'' Stressed out Harry. ''Cisco, you need to open a portal. Now!''

The distant howl coming from Gorilla City was the encouragement Cisco needed to get out of his torpor, get back up and do as he was asked. ''Let's go!'' He screamed, making sure everyone stepped in it, starting with Caitlin, who was closely followed by Julian and Harry carrying an unresponsive speedster. Time to get home. Cisco followed the team, arriving on the other side just in time to see the men of West family taking charge of the hero.

''Barry!'' Screamed out Iris. ''What happened?''

''No time to explain, let's take him to the med bay, now!'' Ordered Caitlin, watching the West carried their precious cargo ahead of her.

 *****FLASHFLASHFLASH*****

A particularly loud moan was the first clue the team received that Barry was coming back to them.

''What happened?'' Mumbled Barry without even opening his eyes.

''I fixed you again, what do you think? '' Chuckled Caitlin, half-joking before getting serious. ''You had us worried for a second there. Other than your broken arm, turned out you had really bad internal bleeding and a broken rib perforated one of your lungs. That last part probably happened when you ran us out of there and you fell down in the forest. ''

''Don't remember that part.'' Barry slowly opened his eyes only to realize he was in the medical bay with Joe, Iris, Caitlin and Julian. ''How am I?''

''You'll be fine before tomorrow morning.'' Said Iris, sitting next to him and taking his hand.

''Sorry for the scare.'' Apologized Barry.

''Don't worry about it.'' Assured Caitlin, piling up pillow behind his friend's back. ''Just try to not make a habit out of it. ''

''Out of getting beat down by a giant gorilla? I'll do my best.'' Smirked Barry.

''If you do it again, I'll come get you myself.'' Said Joe, leaning to hug his son as hard as he could without hurting him furthermore. No matter how hard he wanted to protect him from all harm, he knew he was never going to be able to do it, but he wasn't going to stop trying.

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 **A/N: How was it? let me know in the comments**


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